Town of Sunset and Shadow
by je suis l.m
Summary: In the secret place, Riku knew Roxas before Sora lost his heart, & the dark keyblade wielder can't align his feelings of homecoming, of perplexity over the Nobody, & for flight without immersing himself in isolation or possible danger. Riku/Roxas
1. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or any of it's sequels and prequels. This is _fan_fiction.

Beta Reader: mandy-san

* * *

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter One

_The secret place, beside the waterfall, under the tree. It was a world of its own; it was the gate to the center of the world; it was Destiny Islands' connection to any place other than its own meager seclusion._

_Riku stepped into its murkiness, feeling the dampness of waterfall mist on his skin. Blinking his eyes rapidly so as to adjust to the lack of sun, he admired the drawings on the cavern walls—Kairi and Sora staring at one another, a crazed maniacal face with hair gone astray, wraiths and dragons. Sitting on the cold stone floor, he placed a hand on the image of Sora and shut his eyes. _

_Riku's desire to escape the islands stirred in his stomach like fluttering butterflies. _Sora is no help_, he complained silently as he turned his aqua gaze to the log beside him. Then he noticed a small, sharp rock against the log. He picked it up in his hands, smoothing it over his callused palms, musing. _One more picture to add to the collection.

_Casually and without much thought, Riku sketched a face in a low corner: large eyes, layered hair, pouty lips. It took a moment for him to focus and realize he'd drawn a boy. The stone wall upon the sketch's eyes was a dark blue, almost as though coloring the irises. The little sun let in from the chasm in the ceiling shone directly on the hair, making it a stunning blonde._

"_Who are you?" Riku mummered, then shook his head. _A picture, of course_, he replied to himself. _This island's draining you. Now, you're talking to yourself.

_With that, Riku rose, reclaimed his log, and pocketed his stone. Once back in the bright sun, white sands, and glittering oceans of the outside world, he tossed the stone into the pool of water created by the waterfall. His aim was poor, and a little too strong, he realized, as it struck a pyramid of rocks previously stacked by a rather meticulous Wakka._

"_Damn rocks," he muttered beneath his breath as he glanced about in the hopes that Wakka was not nearby. He wasn't. "Rocks," he repeated again._

Roxas. _His mind wandered to the image he'd drawn in the secret place. _Roxas. _Riku shook his head again. _

"_I am losing it," he said, trying to regain his composure. He straightened his back and cocked his head to both sides, cracking his tense spinal cord. To his right he noticed something out of place—wrong. Sora sleeping on the beach. _

_Riku smirked to himself, at the familiar sight of Sora slacking off. He placed his log in the crook of his neck and headed in his best friend's direction._

–

"_His name is Roxas," DiZ told him. _

Roxas... Why does that name seem so familiar?

–

_The apparition that stood before Sora, he glowed in iridescence, and then disappeared_

_"Don't worry," Riku assured his friend. "You're all still you."_

_But the apparition's face had startled him. He could not place it, but he seemed so familiar, eyes a dark azure, like blue stone. _

Who are you?

-

The island breathes as Riku breathes—the sand his white skin, the clouds his silver hair, the seafoam waves his ocean eyes. To be home should have made him feel perfect; yet his mind is unsettled, pestered by the fact that here he is, back where he started, no better than before. Maybe worse? He is marred now by the darkness. He has accepted it, of course, but he is forever altered by its sickening, inviting call.

Sora sits with Kairi on the Paopu tree, holding hands. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are congregated on the beach, chatting away about pastimes and their futures. But Riku stands alone, in the tree house, surrounded by shadows. His gaze lingers upon Sora. The setting sun dazzles his skin, his hair—he seems different. His hair seems lighter, dustier. His skin seems a shade whiter. Riku squints, attempting, daring to see into his eyes. To put the pieces together.

_Roxas._

Sora glances his way for a moment, seeing nothing, but to Riku that could never be Sora. It is someone else—a drawing upon a cavern wall. A name spoken by DiZ. A nearly transparent image seen before the final battle against Xemnas.

But why does it matter to him so much? Riku's core stirs with the butterflies of escape again. _His face urges me to leave. It has brought me to darkness. _He remembers the once distant and now present sensation in his stomach, how its first appearance was brought about by his impulsive sketch of Sora's Nobody, how only a few days later he was thrust into darkness, abandoned to Hollow Bastion. Can a face do so much?

His vision strays to the setting sun and the ocean beneath it. _I don't want to travel again, not alone. _

Riku crouches in the far corner of the tree house, isolated from his friends, left only to his memories, his fear, and the darkness.

* * *

This is immensely short, I know, but I would like to receive reviews so that I can know if there is general interest in my idea. I am very busy and do not like to waste my time. For those who only glimpsed at the summary, this is a shounen-ai story between Riku and Roxas, and there will be an ever so slight match between Riku and Sora on account of the coexistence factors of Roxas and Sora.

Please review. I promise the next chapter will be longer.


	2. Chapter Two

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Two

The ocean is the sky, and the stars where the sea had once been. From the tree house, Riku can spy the waves of constellation. The moon flickers on the sand—the only light to be seen.

Riku rushes down the ladders, hurrying to this dying crescent of light. If it is extinguished, then there will be nothing but darkness to envelope him. Always the darkness, as though Ansem still grips his heart, is still manipulating his body; his heart lost to a black abyss. Riku was locked in darkness, yet he had never met his Nobody.

_I don't have one_. Why?

Finally, his feet meet the sand, and as he stares from the waterfall, he sees that the moon he is chasing after is not flickering like a windblown candle. No, it is swinging to-fro. His footfalls upon sandy shore bring him to Sora, sailing toward the sky, nestled in his swing.

_Since when has there been a swing set on this beach? _Riku wonders.

"Since when has the tide brought the stars here?" came Sora's reply. "I know what you're thinking, Riku. You're going to leave us again."

"I never said that."

"Yes, you did. You told me in the tree house, remember?"

Riku can't recall, but what are memories, really? To him they are but moving pictures of ebony.

"Don't run. I lost my heart once to darkness, too, you know."

Riku knows all too well. Sora fell into darkness for Kairi, and in mere moments, he broke from the chains of shadow—on is own—while Riku had remained trapped behind the Door to Darkness, alone, for so long. Sure, King Mickey had been with him, but with each blinking second, Riku knew Sora was free, Sora was light, he had Kairi, he had _friends_, and royalty was poor company for an island boy.

"You remember?" Sora whispers, his swing halted. Riku cannot look at him—his friend who has always belonged to the light.

"Yes."

"I don't regret it, losing my heart." Then, he grasps Riku's arm, forcing his eyes to see, but when Riku turns, his friend is no longer there, replaced by stone-blue irises, honey hair.

"After all," says Roxas, "it brought me to you."

-

Sunshine streams across the tree house floor, nearly blinding Riku as he slowly opens his eyes to the morning. With languid steps, he makes his way to greet the island daylight. The sun is in the sky, the ocean blue nestled beside the sand. All is as it was the day before, no swing set. Riku's boat is the only one docked at the small pier. _Alone again_, he thinks _Nothing is different._

Sharp pressure shoots through his back, an effect of his uncomfortable resting place last night, and as he softly takes the ladders down, rung by rung, Riku tries to ignore the pain. His steps seem so loud in the quietude of the island morning, resonating off every crevice, every surface, and once he reaches the foot of the tree, he swears he can still hear himself, echoes moaning from the depths of the secret place, the cave yawning before him.

The coolness of the cavern walls feels recuperating against the tips of Riku's fingers, like twinges of healing crystal to ease his muscles and calm his turbulent thoughts. Once he comes upon his rough sketch of Roxas, Riku knows it was this image that beckoned him inside the secret place, not imaginary footsteps.

"How did I know you?" he murmurs to the picture.

-

"_His name is Roxas," DiZ told him. "He is nobody—to us, to the worlds."_

_Yet his face meant so much to Riku, reminding him of the island, of a world that had kept him pure for the first years of his life. _Roxas_, a voice had whispered to him only a few days before his life had changed for good._

-

"Riku."

His head snaps back with a gasp, his mind pulled from his daydream, but his breath lets out in a slow sigh when Riku sees only Sora at the cave's mouth.

"We have so many childhood memories here," he says, not moving. Riku knows without looking that Sora is staring at the pictures of himself and Kairi, sharing a Paopu fruit. Have they shared one yet? To Riku, it doesn't really matter. Sora and Kairi could be worlds away when they are together. Riku faded, like a dying star.

"Are you okay," Sora asks, almost as though he is afraid to say it.

Standing, Riku begins to retreat, hastily conjuring a response: "I'm fine." But just as he passes his friend, Sora's hand grasps his arm, familiar, like his dream, except this time when he turns, he is met by the same face that he has seen throughout his life. His polar opposite.

"We're home now, Riku." His eyes show concern in its most visible form. "We can relax."

But Sora's hand still upon his bare arm—that is all Riku can see, can feel. Is this how Roxas's hand would feel? Softness upon his impurity, his fingertips an angel's kiss. _I am beyond redemption when next to you, Sora_, he thinks. _But could Roxas be any different? _All he manages to say aloud is, "I'm happy for you."

Then, he is past him, into another wave of sunshine that almost renders him blind.

-

Things could be so much worse than this, Riku knows as he catches the ball. Around him are his friends: Sora, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie. Around him are the things he'd longed for while behind the door: laughter, ocean, beach, the sun—the images that kept him sane. He feels himself smile, his lips curling, his mouth slightly ajar, his eyes glittering. It's a game, all a game—the ball is passed back and forth. Laughter and sparkling waves—

—a cry from Sora's throat, enough to tear any reverie to shreds. The ball is dropped as Sora falls. Riku is the first to his friend's side, Kairi close behind.

"Sora!"

The keyblade wielder shakes his head, fists pressed into his temples. A strangled voice, one that seems so unlike him, calls out. "Riku…Riku."

"I'm right here." He remembers being with Sora after their battle with Xemnas, their closeness. At that time, they were both creatures of the dark, both locked away. Friends, beside each other near a shadowed ocean. "I'm here."

"It's like…someone is trying to…"

Kairi reaches a hand forth, brushing back brown strands of hair from his damp forehead. "Sora, please be okay."

Riku stares at her for a moment, her worried purple eyes. It was Kairi who took Sora back from the dark ocean; she set them both free, through the door to light. Yet Riku is still trapped, he believes, in that dark ocean. Not on sunny Destiny Islands. The sand makes it easy for him to slide away, for Kairi to hold Sora, for him to disappear into the background. But that strange voice from Sora calls out again.

"Riku…Riku, he can…I see you."

"Who?"

But then it is over; Sora's eyes shut, then reopen, unclouded, the pain dissipated like a clearing storm. He lies in Kairi's arms, and it is only Riku who notices that his friend's gaze will not leave his.

"What happened?" Kairi asks with anticipation.

"It was like," he begins, "I was a different person." Sora seems to fight away more words, to resist the urge to pull himself from Kairi and run into the sea. _Or maybe that's how I feel? _Riku ponders. _To get away; to flee, so I don't have to pretend that I don't understand who is within you, Sora, that Roxas is trying to find his way to me._

_Or is that merely what I want?_

* * *

I really hope you guys are not horribly lost. If any grammar/spelling mistakes really bother you, feel free to tell me. Otherwise, review. I love feedback, good or bad.


	3. Chapter Three

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Three

The note has been so perfectly hidden that Riku nearly passes it by as he walks through the back door to his home—always the back door; front doors seem so open, almost as though the home is inviting him. Riku is not one for invitations, friendly suggestions. His life in darkness has gifted him with a watchful eye, something that most might call paranoia. However, Riku does not recognize this reason for his odd form of entrance. No, his fear of welcoming lies buried deep within his subconscious, feeding upon his mind, holding him as a prisoner of unawareness.

Unaware—Riku only sees the note from the corner of his eye, spying it beneath a small potted sunflower. A dead petal has fallen upon the letter—black scarring the whiteness. Riku lifts the paper in his hand, squinting at the small writing in the setting sun.

_Riku,_

_Meet me at the pier tonight, on the small island. No one will be there but me. Seems like all of Destiny Islands has a bedtime at nightfall. We haven't spent much time together. Please be there, eleven o'clock sharp._

_-Sora_

_P.S. Yeah, I know, we are going to be out late._

Folding the letter, into square upon smaller square to fit in his pocket, Riku cannot help but smile. Sora has been so distracted lately, with Kairi, and he cannot blame the enamored brunette. Be that as it may, the dark keyblade wielder has missed his best friend, and despite the exhaustion that is tugging at his muscles, tonight seems like it may paint the day with a better horizon, and Riku cannot resist the temptation of any momentary happiness.

-

The row to the island has never seemed so long to Riku, but then again, he hasn't ever boated there at this late of a time. The new moon is shrouded somewhere behind the night sky; yet Riku manages to forget the darkness and stare only at the winking stars.

_Tiny suns_, he thinks, and even though he knows he should hurry so as not to leave Sora abandoned, he cannot help but lie back, his eyes to the zenith, his hands trailing in ocean water, feeling the waves lick his skin, the wind leaving butterfly kisses upon his cheek. _Spirit breaths_, he believes the sensations to be. _Like Roxas. Like his cavern eyes holding mine in the dream._

Riku blushes lightly at the thought, banishing it quickly by sitting upright and taking up his oars with a newfound vigor. Sora is waiting.

The pier in view, Riku can see a figure of shadows standing there, watching like a lighthouse, waving an arm to mooring ships. He knows this is Sora, but somehow, he is unable to rid himself of the feeling that it could anyone—a trick. Throwing his rope to the pier, Sora becomes visible by the starlight reflecting off the water.

"Hey," he says softly, so as not to mar the tranquility of the island.

"Hey." The two tie the boat to the pier, in a thick knot, Sora kneeling above, Riku leaning over in his miniature vessel. Riku knows he can do this on his own, knows that Sora knows this, but accepts his aide without a word, relishing in it being just them two, this time.

After Riku lifts himself to the pier, Sora takes hold of his elbow. "C'mon," he urges. "I have a surprise."

The two make their way down the sandy beach, past the seaside shack, under the islet bridge, side by side. Eventually, Sora stops at the makeshift, wooden door leading to the cove. "This way," he says.

The cove's bridge would be tricky to anyone who had not been raised on the Islands. They cross it with ease in the dark, while Riku's mind replays the many games the two had competed in against each other on it, over such trivial matters, like who got to dock their boat where, who could eat the last smores made at that afternoon's bonfire, who would share the Paopu with Kairi, who would name that raft they made what seems to be lifetimes ago. _Highwind_, Riku remembers. _I don't mind that you won, Sora. A name means so little when compared to the object. A raft, a face. Your face…or that of a boy I hadn't known carved into stone.  
_

Finally, Sora stops, on the beach opened wide to the unending sea. "Close your eyes," he commands Riku with a playful grin. The silver haired boy complies, trusting his friend, his memories that tell him Sora presents no threat.

After sounds of dragging wood, shifting sand, and a breathless Sora, Riku is allowed to reopen his eyes, and he sees the raft before him—his supposed ticket to freedom before the darkness claimed him. The flooring has not rotted, the sail has merely one hole. "How did it stay this way?" he asks.

"I don't know. I found it this morning, hidden under all the trees. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. This place has been restored, just the way it was before…" Sora faulters, but Riku knows what he is thinking. _Before I brought the Heartless to this world—a plague. Or am I the plight of these shifting sands?_

"Let's go for a ride," the brunette boy says, almost as a question, a plea. Riku nods, and the two drag it to the water, jump on, and kick it out to sea. They lie beside each other, and Riku gazes at the same stars he'd seen on his way here, but to him, they are now better, more whole, lying next to Sora. He turns to his friend, and finds that their eyes meet. Sora's widen in shock, and Riku realizes he has caught him staring.

"I'm sorry," Sora stutters. Riku shakes his head at the apology, saying without words that there is no need for 'sorry' between them. "Riku…"

"Yes?"

"Would you sail away right now. If you could? Just the two of us."

A cold wind ruffles his clothes as Riku searches for a reply to Sora's question. All responses are muffled by his surprise and worry—Sora had so wanted to come home, to be with Kairi. Why, of all people, would _he _be considering a getaway.

As though reading his thoughts, Sora apologizes once more. Silence envelopes the two, but then Sora continues: "I don't know anymore, Riku. It's like I don't know who I am. My mind is out of control. Like I can hear my own thoughts screaming in my ears. I came here for Kairi. I love her, but now…it's as if—as though…when I look at you." Sora's voice quits, as sudden as it had begun, and Riku realizes he is holding his breath, desperately wanting to hear more, in the hopes of hearing something else. Riku can sense it in Sora's tone, his manners. _Roxas_.

Then, Sora's hand reaches out, fingers trailing down Riku's jawline. The dark keyblade wielder doesn't move, not even to blink, as his friend softly touches his lips, then along his cheekbones, toward his eyes, which Riku finally shuts to feel Sora against his eyelids, his lashes fluttering madly. Riku wonders, if his eyes could open now, will he see his lifelong friend, or cavern-blue eyes, blonde hair—the image of no one etched, burned into his mind.

"I shouldn't have asked you here," Sora breathes. "I'm not myself."

"Don't regret it," Riku answers.

"I shouldn't." In an instant, Sora's voice seems to flicker. "It brought me to you."

-

At the pier, the boys prepare to say goodbye. Riku stares from behind Sora, his friend for so long, and still nothing more than that. Confused, Riku looks into the shallow waters upon which float their docked boats. After the raft, it had been as though nothing had happened between the two; Sora's voice remained strong, alongside his resolve, and his composure never slipped. To Riku, all of that would be well enough. Sora and Kairi together; him alone. _It is the way things are_, he knows. This is the way his life has been, and should stay.

Were it not for Roxas, whoever he may or may not be—existing within Sora, or a figment of his imagination, conjured by self-pity and an image on a wall.

"It was nice, Riku," Sora says, shattering his friend's thoughts. "Let's do this again."

"Definitely."

Parting has become so easy to Riku, and this realization saddens him as he watches Sora step toward his boat. But the melancholy is replaced by reflexive fear once his friend slips in the dark, his eyes not seeing his foot miss its destination. He falls into the water. For the second time that day, Riku hears his friend cry out. He jumps into the water after him, keeping his head up so as to prevent him from drowning. It is all he can do as he watches his friend slowly shut his eyes in pain, but once the lids close, even in the darkness, Riku can feel the change.

"Roxas?" he asks.

In a flash, he reads in his friend's now wide eyes the crystal blue irises; Roxas leans to him, and in a whisper more frightened than profound, this stranger says: "Riku, you know me?" His hand cups the silver haired boy's cheek.

"I know."

But then, Roxas is gone, Sora returned to his rightful place, although slumped against Riku's shoulder, groaning at the dwindling ache in his leg. "I'm all right."

"Yes, you are."

Sora slowly pulls himself upward, then quickly pushes away from Riku, as though the dark boy has become a detestable Heartless with claws scraping against his chest in search of one thing only.

"Did you…" he mumbles. "Did I…?" Without finishing his sentence, he hoists himself into his boat. "I'm sorry, Riku. Tomorrow." And he is off, before Riku can ask what his friend is sorry for this time.

And he is left knowing that this night is not the last he will see of Roxas. Whether that is good or bad, he remains unsure of. For his sake, or for Sora's.

* * *

Okay, so this was a little difficult to write, and actually, this scene was supposed to be much shorter. Oh well. I do recall people liking longer chapters on fanfic. Oh yes, and in Chapter Two, there was an error. I accidentally called Selphie, Kelpie (don't ask). It's been righted.

I don't mean to complain, but no one reviewed Chapter Two, and I _know _that people read it (thanks to the Story Traffic Viewer). In other words:

Please review.


	4. Chapter Four

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Four

Sleep has become a foreigner to Riku, someone far and unreachable, like King Mickey, who that morning sailed away with Donald and Goofy to their world. Farewells had been exchanged, a long hug from His Majesty, and he was gone, so fast, in a flash of light, just as he had appeared to him from behind the Door.

Lying on his bed, trying to rest his tired eyes, for he had been unable to slip into unconsciousness after his night out with Sora, Riku is assaulted by questions and a medley of positive and negative thoughts about the king, who had helped him in regaining the small fragments of light that exist somewhere deep within his heart. However, the question that plagues the silver haired boy the most remains whether or not Mickey had been his true friend or simply a curious observer of the conflicting elements in his heart. Hadn't His Majesty said so himself: "Light and dark, back to back. With you, they mingle in a way no one's ever seen before. I want to see where that road leads." The road has ended, leaving Riku where he started, and Mickey has departed for home—to what? Record his findings, another volume in the castle library?

_None of it matters anymore_, Riku reminds himself. _He's far away, now—the last remnant of my journey to other worlds, excluding this new me full of self doubt and shadow._

_And the sketch of Roxas. _The blonde boy's features colored by nightfall enters Riku's mind. He had touched him, a mere hand upon his face, but the contact meant so much to Riku, and the memory of it even more, for it proves to him that he has not descended into madness. His visions of Roxas have been real, but how has the Nobody found his way into the corporeal world? The last he had seen of him was in the final moment before he possessed Sora, to be locked within the keyblade wielder, for good. Yet now, Roxas's mentality seems to be escaping, desperate for air and a life beyond the four walls of Sora's mind.

Freedom for Roxas—the idea sends chills down Riku's spine, and he cannot decide if they are chills of fear or pleasure. Riku places his palm against his cheek. _This is absurd_, he thinks. _It lasted only a moment. _Sora had held him for much longer, yet he suspects that his friend's affections were only a product of Roxas. Hadn't Sora mentioned only seconds before that he is in love with Kairi? If within his words lies the truth, then Riku knows that the Nobody is affecting Sora, in an attempt to reveal himself—to Riku? He _had _shown himself, if only in a time of weakness for the brunette boy.

And at the center of this mess of apparitions, touch, and friendship exists a picture of a boy who hadn't been born yet. Or should never have been born at all.

-

Everday, Riku finds himself on the small island, and this sleepless day is no exception. The monotony of the ocean waves and boat trip to the sandy, uninhabited shores has begun to wear on the silver haired boy, but no other activity has arisen. The entirety of his childhood summers had been spent, wasted there, driving him to madness—an insanity so immense that it led to Riku's expulsion from the world as well as its destruction.

Two boats are docked at the pier, and Riku recognizes them as Sora and Kairi's. He sighs, understanding that his friend will be preoccupied as usual, unlike the last night when he'd had him to himself, in terms of friendship, not love, or so he hopes it to have been. Otherwise, he might be harming his friends' relationship, which Sora has fought so hard to earn; yet Riku cannot help but relish in the thought of Sora's fingertips against his lips.

He wonders how Roxas's lips against his would feel. Sucking in a breath, he attempts to halt his fantasies. Since when has Roxas become the key player in his daydreams?

Riku expects to see the figures of Sora and Kairi on the islet in the distance, but does not. Confused, he glances around. Jealousy grips his stomach when the idea of Sora sharing the raft with the girl suffices in his mind. However, this is banished when he comes upon Kairi, alone, in front of the seaside shack, fiddling with Thalassa shells, just as she had on the days before their adventure began. _Supposed to ensure a safe voyage. To where, Kairi?_

"Hey, Riku," she beams, holding the Thalassa shells behind her back like a badly kept secret. "It's funny, you've finally made it back, but I feel as though I haven't seen too much of you."

"You've been busy," he quips, not meaning to sound as harsh as the tone conveys. He smiles to soften the words, his venomous tongue covered in chocolate.

She nods. "You're right. Well, I think Sora's looking for you."

"Really? I just got here."

"Then he's waiting." To Riku's muddled expression, she adds: "I don't know. He said he was going to the tree house." Before Riku can leave, she places her hand on his arm to stop him. "Also…" She pauses, making him uncomfortable with her halted speech—awkward, something Kairi has never been. "Take these with you." She quickly thrusts the shells, braided into a thick Paopu leaf stem, at him.

"For what? I'm not going away."

"I suppose," she murmurs, her violet eyes to the lapis lazuli sea stretched to the horizon, blue waters and sky holding a blurry white line of eternity prisoner. "Riku, take them. Anywhere is somewhere. Be safe."

Holding back a sardonic reply—_Tell your accident prone boyfriend that_—Riku pockets the shells, and with a gesture of his hand is off, toward the tree house, to uncover Sora's strange behavior. Behind him, he glimpses Kairi disappearing into the seaside shack.

The tree house appears welcoming from the outside, which immediately unnerves Riku, for he knows the darkness within its core far too well. Just as he reaches the base, Sora emerges from the depths, staring down at him, hand shading his squinted eyes against the glaring sun. He waves excitedly.

"Riku!" he cries. "Come up here."

Riku's aquamarine eyes avert from the darkness from which Sora has just exited. _No_, he thinks. _Keep away from the dark, from Sora. _He remembers the night before, Sora's light touch—harmless—but if Kairi had seen, she would have been mortified. 'I'm not myself,' he'd said. Why? Is Roxas reacting to him being near? _Keep away from Sora._ To save him? From what? The being inside him that wants out. '_Riku…You know me?'_

_I know all too well_, he responds inwardly. _Cavern boy who watches me in my dreams—haunts me in the daylight._

In the midst of these thoughts, he only says: "You come here."

Sora shakes his head, the sunlight glinting off the chains on his clothes, the colors of his eyes. He leans against the weak fencing around the bridges to the tree house. "I need to speak to you," he yells as quietly as possible from where he is. "It's about last night. It's about when—"

He then cuts himself off with yet another cry, surprise instead of pain, but Riku knows the boy will finish his shriek in agony as he merely observes the fencing give out beneath Sora's harsh grip. Sora plummets like a fallen angel, losing his innocence, sacrificing his lucidity for what cause? Vanity, like Lucifer? _No_, Riku speaks to himself as his friend is defeated by gravity. He recalls Sora's slight injury in the water the other night—sees Roxas's face before his own. As Sora nears the hard ground, Riku wonders if this is all preplanned, by an omniscient being, carefully crafting the moment in which the silver haired, dark keyblade wielder would truly meet his secret picture.

With a sickening crack, Sora hits the dirt, mere feet from his friend, who rushes to him, with a certainty that once he kneels before the brunette that he will be different—blonde and without broken limbs. He will be Roxas. He _is_ Roxas.

Riku threads his fingers into his honey locks. "Are you all right?" he whispers shakily.

"I am, Riku." The puzzlement still flutters in those sapphire wall eyes, but not so much as last night, for the day has given them both sufficient time to think this over.

"And Sora?"

"His pain is muffled in my prescence."

He nods slowly. "Good."

And in one breathless moment, Riku clears the space between them, his lips pressed against Roxas's, nearly afraid he'd miss, but he finds the blonde's upper lip and kisses it softly. The chills course his spine again as Roxas kisses him in return, and he now knows that they are from pleasure and only that, like a seafoam crested wave living in the singular instant of water against burning sand.

When they part, it is because of Roxas, who stares into Riku's eyes as though searching for an answer. _I know you_, Riku thinks. _Please know me, too. Please let there be some security in this lunacy._

Almost reading his thoughts, Roxas murmurs: "You said you knew me? I can see that you do; yet all I know of you is what Sora has in his memories, in his mind." And with those words, Riku shatters, glass shards in Roxas's arms.

"But," he continues. "I feel like I should know you, Riku. That there is more. Can you understand that?" His eyes lower, then meet the silver haired boy's again. "Can you explain?"

"There was—is a drawing, well, a simple sketch." Riku stumbles over these words even though they simply speak of the same image that has been played behind his eyes since his homecoming. Since its creation. "It is of you, and I—"

Roxas's grasp on his arm tightens, almost in fear of losing its hold. "Riku…" he says too hurriedly, like a warning, and the dark keyblade wielder knows what is to come.

"Don't go," he begs, but in vain, as before he can even blink, Sora returns to his rightful place, head slumped against Riku's shoulder, just as he did the previous night. His right arm lies limp upon the ground, his wrist bent perpendicular in a direction that it should never be.

Sora nuzzles the tip of his nose against his friend's neck. "It hurts," he whimpers. Then, "Kairi." And as though sensing his summoning, the girl comes running, arms pumping madly, and she takes away Sora, holds him against her, cradles his frailty, and all Riku can think of is cavern blue eyes and a blonde boy's kiss swimming within his own.

-

Home—he knows that is what these walls stand for, to keep him safe from the humid winds and scraping sands of the islands in which he carved the face of Roxas so long ago. He must withdraw inside, feel his soft sheets against his aching, tired body. His room is so close, an arm's width away. The doorknob is ice against his hand.

He should be safe from it all here, but no, waiting for him, on his bed is Sora, cerulean eyes expectant.

"I know everything Roxas knows," he mutters a brief explanation. He lifts his bandaged wrist to Riku, capturing his arm and pulling him close. "And I can't keep his thoughts from mine, Riku. Not anymore."

Riku cannot stop himself from noticing how much like Roxas Sora's lips are.

* * *

So, I finally made it to the romantic interactions between the characters. I hate rushing things, and I hope that doesn't bother any of you. Notice any inconsistencies? Please, do tell. And like always:

Review, please.


	5. Chapter Five

* * *

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Five

A whirlpool—that is how Riku describes the sensations he feels as he kisses the carrier of his parasite obsession, Roxas, but then, Sora pulls away, just as suddenly as he had initiated the embrace.

"We have to talk," he murmurs, his eyes looking stricken as though he cannot stop the hand that slowly caresses Riku's arm, his hair, his lips again; before the silver haired boy is able to a reply, Sora captures him in another kiss, albeit brief. "Really," he continues. "We have to." He nearly leans in once more before Riku steps back, understanding Sora's erratic behavior.

'_I can't keep his thoughts from mine. Not anymore.' _Riku bites his tongue as he fights the urge to use Sora's weakness advantageously. The brunette has been his best friend for ages—nothing more—but as he gazes upon him now, his thoughts are full of Roxas, not of friendship, and even as his mind screams to him, warning him that Sora loves Kairi, not the dark keyblade wielder, and that Roxas is merely influencing him, Riku's thoughts wander to their intimate moment in the darkness after Xemnas, leaning against Sora for support, the ocean tide lapping upon the shore, and their eyes to the distance, fully accepting the life they were about to lead, together. _The confusion isn't only for you_, Riku tells his friend silently. _Two persons in one being. Which do I feel for?_

Nursing his bandaged wrist in one hand, Sora shuts his eyes, like a trapped canary who has just learned of his death sentence in a poisoned mine. "Riku," he whispers. "Let's talk in a place where we don't have to be quiet." He indiciates with the tilt of his head to the far wall—a thin partition between Riku's room and his parents'. The two leave the bed, Sora tentatively as though he is suddenly afraid to be without the walls cocooning them both, but once Riku grasps Sora's hand, the keyblade wielder calms and is able to take the necessary steps away from their refuge, out the room, into the humid night sky—clouded just as Sora's eyes are. The boys make their way to the beach, rather small when compared to the one on their more private island, but it is deserted, and that is all they need.

The sand is soft against their feet, their backs, as they rest themselves beside the shore. "Sora," Riku starts, unable to direct his gaze anywhere but at the brunette. "So you know…about Roxas?"

He nods briskly, as though what Riku has said is merely an understatement, that Sora doesn't only _know _about the blonde, but that he feels what he feels, sees how he sees. Or this is how Riku interprets the simple gesture. "I'm a little confused, though," he replies. "And I think Roxas is, too. Riku…" He pauses to breathe in deeply, readying himself. "Do you understand everything that is happening? How is Roxas able to show himself, take my place? And why is there this pain in my head, this sharp pressure that attacks me whenever I'm around you?"

_A pain? _Riku wonders. _Roxas, are you fighting for a way out? _But the silver haired boy does not voice this to his friend. He wants to calm him, hold him. However, "I know Roxas," is all he can manage to say.

"But how? With his thoughts mingling with my own, all I can see is that you two fought each other, in the World That Never Was."

The World That Never Was—a place of darkness, yet a kind that was foreign to Riku: the shadow of the Nobodies. Riku had not known the face of the boy he fought in that world of metal steel glass mortar streets, having blindfolded himself to amplify his dark aura in an effort to defeat the double keyblade wielder that DiZ had so implored him to fight. All in vain, for his battle scars merely revealed the weakness within himself, the necessity for darkness, and the confrontation had nearly unshrouded the then distant memory of a name. _Roxas, a face who at that time I had still not seen on anything other than cavern walls. My obsession. _

"I lost against him."

"Yes, but that doesn't explain how you seem to know him so well, or why my thoughts are all of you and Roxas, and his desperation—" Sora's voice cuts itself off, choked in the icy hands of tears, which manifest in his marine eyes, like the ocean freeing itself from his irises. The waves touch the tips of their toes as Riku tries to pull his friend in to his arms, to stifle his whimpers and sobs, his silent plea for a cure to halt the two entities waging war in his consciousness. To be losing oneself to his other elicits a fear greater than any phobia, and is enough to cause the sufferer to deny the comfort being offered him. Sora curls himself away from Riku, eyes tightly shut, but he can still hear him.

"Sora, I'm sorry. Roxas—I knew him before anything ever happened." As the words begin to free themselves from Riku's constricted throat, he finds that they will not be stopped. "In the secret place, I knew him before you ever lost your heart. In a drawing in stone…It's still there, you can see him. I heard his name spoken to me. I don't know how, and now, it's all I can do to keep him out of my thoughts. He's there, waiting for me. Maybe he's on the edge of your mind, too? Waiting for me there."

Slowly, as Riku's voice calls like delicate bells, Sora uncurls from his fetal position, staring to Riku with foreign eyes, like Roxas is seeing, listening, summoned by a familiar story. In an instant he is gone; yet Sora reaches out unexpectedly, embracing Riku, pulling him beside him, his head to be cradled against the brunette's chest. "Riku, show me," he murmurs. "Show me the drawing."

"Roxas?"

"No," he says quietly. "I don't think so, at least. I think it's me, Sora, but I feel strange." He fingers twine in Riku's hair. "Do you want it to be him?"

He shakes his head, his face warm against Sora's soft shirt, but Riku truly cannot decide. In this night, his confusion has catalyzed, his desire mixing for both the real and the unreal, but the silver haired boy realizes that Sora does not care for him beyond friendship, while the Nobody? He'd kissed him back without Sora's thoughts tainting his own. Shouldn't Riku long for the one who wants him? Or is that merely the loneliness within him crying for affection.

_My loneliness, my darkness. Roxas has felt this, too. _Riku shifts so that his face is on level with the keyblade wielder. "In the morning," he says, "I may regret this, but Sora, for this moment, be him for me. Be Roxas." Immediately, he closes his eyes so as not to see the hurt that must be floundering within his friend's pupils. His lips brush Sora's before the brunette seizes them without hesitation, but to Riku the boy beneath him has blonde hair, not brown.

And as they part, he wishes Sora's appearance would stay that way.

-

The rising sun casts a pale pink glow across the room, and Riku still hasn't slept. Regret, he'd known he'd feel it, but the intensity can only be compared to the suffocating darkness of Ansem within him so long ago. Sora's composure was destroyed when the two separated, and Riku hadn't cared. In fact, he'd captured the keyblade wielder in yet another kiss, murmuring his Nobody's name in his ears. Pain—he knows he must have caused it for his friend.

_Pain_, the word echoes in Riku's mind. _Sora is always in pain, now—emotional or physical. Falling into the ocean, from the tree house. _Suddenly, Riku seems to understand, the dots connecting if only by nearly transparent lines. Whenever Roxas appears, Sora has been injured. _So does Sora's pain bring his counterpart out? If Sora did something horrible to himself, if he was horrendoulsy damaged, would Roxas take his place, permanently?_

Riku wonders if this is what Roxas wants. If it happens, Riku will be wrenched free from the isolation that has consumed him for these last years and placed in the Nobody's arms. He clenches his shirt where his heart beats beneath. _A release from the darkness, the alienation. Is Sora's sacrifice worth that? _

The idea causes shame to grip him as he buries his face in a pillow, trying to, hoping to disappear once he pulls away. He knows he will still be there, on his bed, on the island where he was born, and for a second he prays to be behind the Door to Darkness where monotony and nothingness had once surrounded him, but at least it was only that with its detestable familiarity, and not a realization that he could be, may be willing to betray his best friend in order to be with a boy who he has barely spoken to yet feels a connection with so deep that it could sever the one, truly existing relationship he has ever had.

* * *

All right, while last chapter was easily written, this one was not. Review, please.


	6. Chapter Six

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Six

"_His name is Roxas," DiZ told him. DiZ who had asked for his aide. DiZ who had been the true Ansem, and the one who freed Riku from his prison cell of Xehanort with his death. _

_DiZ, whose memory still haunts him._

"Riku!" cries a high-pitched voice, drawing the silver haired boy from his thoughts. He glances up from his lone spot on the pier to see Selphie running toward him. "Hey!" she continues, just as loud even though she stands beside him, towering over his crouched position. "Guess what?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," he replies with a slight smirk on his lips. Selphie's incessant cheeriness has always been able to knock him from his self-deprecation.

The smiling girl holds her hands behind her back and rocks back and forth coyly. "You have to guess first, Riku."

"All right," he says as he rises, now nearly a foot taller than his friend. "I'll guess. You're going to build a raft and sail away from here." Silently, Riku curses himself for his remark. He had not thought about his words before voicing them, merely relying on instinct. Selphie's presence has made him too comfortable, and his laxness has caused him to reveal his inner thoughts, his weakness. _She might not notice_, he hopes. _Selphie is a blunt girl; she doesn't pay attention to tiny details._

Sticking her tongue out, Selphie responds: "That was oddly specific, but Riku, no, I'm not going to imitate you and Sora and Kairi's old goal of getting the heck out of here. I like this place." She turns her head to the ocean, a rare calmness spreading over her. "I don't understand who wouldn't like it here. The days are all so peaceful, you know? Why would anyone want so badly to run?"

_Because, maybe, that person could be destroying the peace. _The wind softly ripples the seawater, but not enough to produce waves. The ocean is in its placid state between low tide and high tide—a meditative state. Riku knows that, soon, a torrent of waves will break against the shore, drenching him if he stays this far out on the pier. _The ocean has cycles_, he thinks. _From drawn back and lonely, to unsure and in-between, and finally to an eruption of emotion. Somehow, it all seems so familiar. _

"Do you want to know the real reason?" Selphie inquires, shocking Riku. It seems as though, lately, everyone around him has been able to read his thoughts, but then she adds: "About why I came to see you right now." He realizes that she is merely continuing her tease of 'Guess What?' and breathes a sigh of relief before asking for her to elaborate. "It's because I wanted to know if Sora's told you something."

Riku's stomach flips, but he hides his emotions, like a beautiful mask disguising an ugly scar. "What about?"

She shrugs. "You haven't heard then? Sora broke up with Kairi this morning. I was just wondering if he told you why. He didn't offer any excuse to her, just saying it was for the best."

"For the best?" Riku's mind wanders to the several kisses he and Sora shared the night before. _Does he feel guilty? As I do? At least his guilt is nobler than mine. _"No, he hasn't told me a thing."

"Tell me if you hear anything. Kairi is pretty torn up."

Vaguely, he nods in recognition of her request, but his feet carry him away. Riku knows his actions are suspicious, but Selphie's questions inspire a new flurry of regret to reprimand him, accuse him. His mask can only stay on for so long before the masquerade is over and the scars are revealed. Riku must flee in order to prevent his—and possibly Sora's—undoing.

Disbelief grips the dark keyblade wielder as he takes slow steps toward the seaside shack—a new place to be alone and gather his scattered thoughts. Even if Roxas has been influencing Sora to feel something more than friendship for him, hadn't the brunette told Riku two nights ago that he loved Kairi? Or has that changed now? _Have I changed that? _

The brittle wooden walls of the seaside shack provide less than pleasant support for the boy's head, but his drowsiness overpowers his discomfort. With images of Sora's smile flashing behind his closed eyes, Riku's consciousness fades away. His last thought weaves brown hair with blonde and two pairs of blue eyes that in an unknown way seem so different from each other if only to him.

-

Riku wakes not in the seaside shack but in a street lined with rose colored buildings, saffron embedded neon lights, and lamps in a shape that appears all too familiar. Slowly, with his back against the blushed pink cement behind him, he manages to stand despite a dizziness that has befallen him. He cannot place his surroundings, or how he knows them, but he realizes that he must find his way home soon for the sun is setting, elongating the shadows.

And in his mind he desperately begs the sun to never fall.

From beside him, a voice calls out: "It's been awhile," it says, and Riku turns to see a man like DiZ. It cannot be DiZ, though, for he is gone, his soul departed, his heart laid to rest. Yet this man is adorned in the same crimson and black cape. His head wrap only covers his scalp, revealing not orange eyes but ones with no color. Only whites—a blankness that seems to absorb everything.

His thin lips crack open as he says: "You do not have to remember me. You will not remember me. Riku, I hold the answers that you desire."

"Then tell me."

"I cannot tell you what you have not asked."

With steps that seem to slow time yet pass by in the blink of an instant, the man crosses the distance between himself and the dark keyblade wielder. Riku tries to fallback from the figure, his knotted stomach shrieking paranoia—warning that he does not know this man, that he can hurt—but the wall against him hinders any form of withdrawal. Understanding his predicament, he sets his gaze upon this stranger with the courage he has built from years of conflict, be it external or internal.

"Tell me of Roxas," Riku demands, voice steady. "Tell me what he is doing to Sora."

Thin lips leer at the silver haired boy. "Oh, but you know that already. You have done this yourself, Riku. Any pain that Sora encounters will be of your doing. Any suffering he befalls will be in his search for you."

"Who's search?"

"The subject of your question."

The shadows grow stronger, engulfing Riku in their murky cape of funereal baptism. He has never been so aware of the waning light in this inevitable sunset. "Why is he searching for me? He has told me that he doesn't even know me."

"'But I feel like I should know you.' Isn't that what he truly told you, Riku? I cannot answer this question, not until we meet."

"We've met now."

A raspy chuckle sounds from his throat, like a hoarse cough ground into sharpened bits of gravel. "One would think. Or dream. Open your eyes and contemplate what I have told you. Come back to Twilight Town and find me, O Dark One."

The sun has vanished, and the night sky overpowers not only the moon and the stars but the world around Riku. The shadows seep into his skin, past the walls he has built against them, and swarm his lungs until he can breathe out nothing but the darkness.

-

Then, he wakes. Alone once more in the seaside shack, Riku can see the twilight glow of the setting sun through the cracks of the carelessly bolted wooden boards. _Twilight Town_, he realizes. _That was where I had been. _However, he soon banishes the idea, branding his dream as unreal and only that. But his dreams have been so strange lately. First with Sora swinging and becoming Roxas, and now _this_—this mysterious man claiming to have all the answers.

"If only it could be that easy," Riku mumbles aloud before exiting the shack for the fresh air. On the beach he glimpses Sora, and he nearly retreats back into his shelter. Selphie had told him that he'd left Kairi with no explanation. Riku feels certain that he is to blame, and never one to run from his mistakes, he chooses to go forward, his hand leaving the sand covered, splintered door of the shack.

Without uttering a word, Riku takes his place beside his friend on the beach. Sora acknowledges his arrival with a curt nod before leaning his head against the silver haired boy's shoulder. "I ended it with Kairi," he tells him, but softly as though afraid his voice cannot take the strain of the statement.

"But why?"

"You know why, Riku. It's because of all this. It's unfair to her for me to be constantly thinking of you, spending so much time with you."

After a brief moment of silence, Riku replies: "I'm sorry."

But Sora shakes his head vehemently against his shoulder. "Don't say that. It only makes things harder. Don't apologize or else it means I'm no good for anybody. Riku, I'm so mixed up. It's all you—in my head. And maybe it's because of Roxas, but it doesn't _feel _that way. Being around you is the only time I'm all right, now, and if that means I have to be him for you, then I'm okay with that."

Sora's words lash at Riku's conscience like a whip, opening evermore wounds of self-blame for the damage he dealt to Sora the night before. Why had he asked Sora to be Roxas for him? Why had he enjoyed it? _'Any pain Sora encounters will be of your doing.'_ His slumber-induced visions continue to show their relevance in his waking life. "You shouldn't have to be someone that you're not, Sora." _Not for me._

"In some way, though," he says, more to himself than to the silver haired boy beside him, "I am him. Aren't I? I am Roxas, and he is me. We are one, right?"

Riku cannot answer this question and finds himself wanting to ask the man he'd seen in that world—Twilight Town, a land of sunset and shadow. Instead of replying, he kisses the crown of Sora's hair, for an instant believing he smells like Roxas, like city smoke and sea salt sugar, but he knows it is only his imagination, his desire.

"Let's sail way together," Riku announces, suddenly. "Far away, to another world."

"I don't know if I can, not again. I don't know if I can leave this place."

_But I have to escape, Sora. I must find an answer for all of this, for you, for me, for Roxas. _"It's all right." Out loud, Riku wears the mask, hides his cicatrice of disappointment.

"I'll find a way, though," he promises. "In my blood, I want to leave, I think. So I'll find a way to make myself go with you, Riku. Just give me a little time. Till then… I'm going home. I have to think. I have so much to think about." He rises quickly, hesitates with one final glance toward Riku, then hurries to the pier.

As Riku watches Sora untangle his boat from this small island that has brought them together from beginning to end, he doesn't move, he doesn't wave goodbye, even though his limbs scream for action. 'Chase him!' they say. 'Before he is gone.' _He's only going home, _he reasons. _I'll see him tomorrow._

_-  
_

"_But what if you can't?" DiZ argued. _

"_What if you can't return to who you once were Riku? Becoming Ansem once more could trap you in his body forever. Are you willing?"_

_He'd been so certain then. "I'm willing to do anything to get to Roxas."_

* * *

**Review. **Is this making sense?


	7. Chapter Seven

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Seven

His hands lightly skim the cold stone as he stares into the face of Roxas. He knows now how poor the drawing is, how much unlike Roxas's cavern blue eyes and honey hair. The Nobody's lips felt like the softest silk when compared to the hard rock of the stone walls in the secret place.

The waterfall outside drowns out all sound in Riku's ears, yet he believes he can hear Roxas's words: _'I feel that I should know you.' _Such a simple sentence remains the silver haired boy's only actual encouragement from the Nobody, but he _had _kissed him._ Is that enough for me to like him over Sora? _Riku ponders, turning his back on the carved image. _To keep hurting my best friend. Sora is the one who has been showing me affection._

But only because of Roxas's thoughts. Riku shuts his eyes and listens to the hum of the waterfall. For once, he'd managed a full rest the previous night. He has no fear of falling asleep, or want of it now. He closes his vision off from the world in an effort to stop, stop seeing, thinking, desiring. In an effort to cut off his confusion, as if his tortured mind is merely an unappealing house that can be torn down with one strike of the wrecking ball—rebuild the house and maybe it will be better next time?

Suddenly, a shriek from outside brings Riku out from his meditation. Wonder pierces him for the waterfall's roar should have been enough to shut out the clamor. The scream must have been so shrill that it still managed to reach the dark keyblade wielder. Standing now, with senses of both resolve and worry gripping his sides, Riku makes his way to the white-hot sunshine outside. The heat is nearly unbearable today—that is why he'd ventured into the secret place at all. Immediately, he can feel beads of sweat upon his brow, brought on by his long hair. He sweeps his bangs to the side with a quick swipe and waits for his eyes to adjust.

Once he can take an unblinded step, he hears excited voices from near the pier. Without hesitation, he rushes toward the voices, where he finds Kairi, Selphie, and Tidus listening intently to an exasperated Wakka, and in that moment, Riku knows that he had mistaken possible excitement for dismay and that, somehow, Sora has found his way into trouble again.

Kairi notices Riku first, her purple eyes meeting his like wilting violets. "Riku," she whimpers. "We have to hurry to the main island."

"What's happened?" He takes a stride forward, now standing tallest beside Wakka.

"It's Sora, ya?" the redhead announces. "I came here quick as I could, to tell ya. He's in trouble. He—"

"Fell off the roof!" Selphie's cry interrupts Wakka and nearly makes Riku's heart halt—if only for an instant. In his mind, he replays Sora's plummet from the tree house. He'd caught himself on his arm, broken his wrist. Riku knows that Sora's house is only two-stories high, that the tree house is at a much greater altitude, that the brunette should be fine, but the stricken faces around him speak of the opposite, telling of a terror that causes Riku to curse his conscience at yesterday's sunset. How right it had been! _'Chase him. Stop him.' Oh, Sora, what have you done to yourself. _

_For me._

-

The sun in the center of the sky, it spotlights the troupe as they find themselves on the main island, at a hospital of white walls, familiar faces busy at work, poisoned antiseptic smells, and smoke shadows of death flickering in the corners of Riku's eyes. He wants to seize these shadows, throw them against the wall, scream at them to leave him alone—he's sorry; stop taunting him. He knows Sora too well, understands his thought process so thoroughly.

"'I'll find a way a way to make myself go with you'," he murmurs to himself. Unbeknownst to the silver haired boy, Kairi glances at him, eyebrows scrunched. Wheels turn in her skull, but she says nothing. Her mind cannot comprehend Riku's condition, so caught up in her ex-boyfriend's peril.

The hospital room is too small for all five of them to fit with the equipment, the one small bed, the fragile bruised boy lying there, unconscious; yet they manage, if only to stare at him in silence. Kairi's tears tear her from the room, Selphie following. Wakka takes his leave in order to speak with Sora's parents, and Tidus, seeing Riku slowly make his way to the side of Sora's bed, allows his awkwardness from interrupting some imagined, unknown, telepathic conversation between the two keyblade bearers drag him away.

And Riku hardly realizes they are gone. All he can think is something is not right, that Sora shouldn't be lying in this bed. He'd been so sure, and Sora must have been, too, for him to throw himself from his rooftop. Roxas comes out when Sora is in pain—he shields him from it. Yet, beside him rests the brunette, his skin battered and his arm completely shattered. _Don't let it all be in vain, Roxas, _he prays. _Come out._

The heart monitor sounds its steady beats in green, like lush summer mountains shrouded in the background of nighttime, numbers counting rhythms on the screen—a language foreign a to Riku, only reciting that Sora's life depends on this line, in these digits, hoping that these mountains will never crumble. He places his head upon a tangle of his arms near Sora's broken hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder. The tip of his nose brushes the blank white canvas sheet. The entire hospital represents blankness, emptiness to Riku. Discordant sounds from beyond him. Discordant thoughts in his mind. Blame.

Then, a hand brushes his hair, fingers slipping through the silver, like an angel forgiving sins. Riku's head jerks to attention, and from every limb to every nerve, a wave of relief washes over his body as he meets those cavern eyes.

"Roxas." Riku's voice slightly chokes. "I thought..."

He smiles, knowingly. "I couldn't reveal myself with all those people around, Riku. Sora's parents, his friends, the doctors. How would they react to finding a different body in this bed. So I had to let Sora suffer a little on his own."

"What happened? Tell me." _Don't, please don't say what I know you will, _he urges silently.

Roxas sits up in the bed, stretching his back, lithely like an apathetic cat, and with that same nonchalance he tells Riku: "Well, he didn't want to leave the islands, but he wanted to make you happy. So he decided to give you what you wanted, Riku."

"It was intentional?"

The blonde nods. "You want to leave, right? I'll go with you. You don't need Sora to escape, Riku. Don't you think this all makes sense? I believe in destiny. How could I not after all that has happened? I was brought into creation to heal Sora after the time Namine destroyed his memories. Namine was created so that Sora could save Kairi and therefore save the worlds from Xehanort. All of this, it's a cycle. Now I'm here; I'm with you. There must be a reason why we are so drawn to each other, Riku."

Horror claws at Riku's spine as shivers. He doesn't need Sora? He needs Roxas. _There is a reason_, he thinks, and he understands reasons all too well. His reason for being immersed in darkness? So that he could damage Sora until the keyblade wielder reached full potential. His reason for being trapped behind a door of darkness, for becoming Ansem for so long? So that Sora could find his way to Xemnas. His reason for existing? For Sora?

_'You don't need Sora...'_ "No, Sora and I..." He stares into the eyes of his secret sketch—the one he has longed to be with since coming home.

"Sora is gone, for now."

_Does Roxas care? Do I? _The blonde brings his unwounded arms up, his hands gracing Riku's face. His fingertips caress the dark keyblade wielder's lips, like a cat's feathery touch, claiming territory. Before Roxas can lean in and capture his lips, Riku asks with what little force is left in his voice: "What is he thinking now?"

Without needing an explanation for 'he,' Roxas answers: "He isn't thinking. I'm in control now, Riku. Sora is unconscious. There are no other thoughts but my own." The blonde looks down as though considering what he has just said, tasting his freedom truly. Then, he kisses the silver haired boy without fear that his body will be returned to its rightful owner, without fear of interruption.

And Riku's thoughts dismiss any guilt. _Sora sacrificed himself for this. I shouldn't feel any blame. I shouldn't. _For that moment, he lets himself believe in no wrong. He fails to care if someone opens the hospital room door and discovers them. He forgets about the shadows. His hands lift to Roxas's hair as he pulls him closer. And for that moment he pretends that running away will be easy, that Roxas _does _feel slightly at fault for Sora's desperation to give Riku what he wanted. He no longer smells antiseptic, no longer tastes darkness. He breathes in Roxas so that if only for those brief seconds, he can be wholly and completely Riku. Not darkness, not light. Not a slave to destiny or the object of question to an empty-eyed dream man. He is Riku; he is all right.

* * *

Wow, am I making them unlikeable? Poor Sora, after all. I decided to make Roxas's personality more like when he was in Organization XIII not when he was oblivious in Twilight Town. That fits the storyline a lot more and makes it easier on me to show the differences between Sora and Roxas.

Review.


	8. Chapter Eight

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Eight

_Swallowed under midnight sky, lost amongst skyscrapers and moving shadows, Roxas once stood, waiting, watching for him, his blindfolded opponent. With clashes of keyblades creating iridescence to fly as sparks between them, the two fought for mere moments disguised as hours. Buried within the heartless, Roxas fought, seemingly unmatched by this silver haired boy. Until the tide turned, until one of his blades felt the softness of his neck beneath it, while the other tasted the blood of his abdomen._

_The blindfold fell away, the rain washing scarlet and crimson into the ebony street. Their eyes met—aqua against cerulean—ocean colors mixing in the storm raging from the roiling, dark clouds above. Riku's lids shut slowly, his mind touching unconsciousness. Roxas, triumphant number XIII, withdrew his blades, turned to leave. Then, he halted. His gaze traveled to his fallen foe. _

Nostalgia. Déjà vu.

-

The problem, burrowing in the depths since Riku entered the hospital room, floats to the surface: Roxas cannot check out of the hospital in Sora's place; he cannot leave as a comatose Sora. Sentinels stand watching in the hallway in the form of the brunette's distraught parents and friends, molded into enemies.

"Well then, distract them," Roxas voice sounds, relieving Riku of the monstrous transformations his mind has been creating—for his eyes only.

The silver haired boy shakes his head, his bangs obscuring his eyes from Roxas, halting his vision from this person who he had thought he wanted more than any other. Peering through his hair, he sees the blonde, now, as someone who has taken away Sora, for the both of them. He has played a part in his friends plight.

"And why not?" Roxas asks, eyebrows raised. "Do you have a better idea, Riku?" He pauses, hearing spite in his voice, not meaning to be so harsh. "I'm sorry," he adds. "Listen, I'm uncomfortable here. I'm just as confused as you are, really. We need to talk, and this is not here, not where anyone can find me here, in Sora's place. If Kairi sees, she'll recognize me. Then it's all over. Do you understand?"

Riku's breath catches in his throat, and he finds that no reply will come easily. He does not know whether or not he understands. He knows he wants to be far away with Roxas. He knows he wants to take Sora back. He knows he cannot have both.

Recovering his voice, he manages: "All right. Distract them from the door, but how?"

"It doesn't really matter, and you don't have to keep everyone's attentions away. Just Kairi. She's the only one who knows who I am, what I look like. The others won't notice if I walk past them, only her."

Kairi, with her alert purple eyes, filled with tears. Riku realizes how simple it will be to avert those violet orbs from the doorway. _Be a shoulder to cry on_, he tells himself, but as simple as the plan is, he is assaulted by guilt as once more treachery plays a role in his life.

"Isn't there another way?" Riku begs softly. _Since when have I been this weak? _Since he lost his independence, searching and crawling through his homeland, Destiny Islands, dependent upon others than himself, his knowledge, his darkness. _Escape to discover the missing piece_, he thinks, feeling for once that he may have uncovered an answer to his problems. _Leave, and I might find the cure to all of this—this restlessness. _His gaze meets the blonde's, seeing in the blue-stone irises no forebodingness, but a savior. The malicious visage sheds, revealing a boy perhaps as confused as he, simply trying to recover the path that leads out of the forest, past the towering redwoods, away from the cold nights, into a land that is familiar and home.

"Through the window?" Roxas laughs, clearly not liking that choice. "How many stories are we up?"

"Too many."

"Then let's give this distraction bit a shot, shouldn't we? How long should I wait, you think, before I bust out of here?"

Biting his lip, Riku estimates the time it will take to initiate his plan. Walk out, meet Kairi, hug her. A shiver shudders across his shoulder blades. When has it last been since he touched the girl? After Destiny Islands' destruction, he had held her, to abduct her, but she was unconscious, and unaware. The moment after she woke, in Sora's arms, there had been no more contact between them. Too ashamed to touch her as Ansem, to alone to feel any old friend's love now.

He must bear it, he knows. Standing from the hospital bed, he realizes his hand has been twined with Roxas's throughout their conversation. Hesitant to let go, he strokes the blonde's fingers as he announces: "Count for two minutes. Then quietly open the door." Remembering the sitting area's position being to the right of the room, he adds: "Head left. I'll follow you after a few more minutes."

"Hurry then." He pulls his hand away. "The longer we wait, the less likely it'll work."

Riku nods and reaches the door. "I'll meet you at the hospital entrance." Out of the door, into the hallway. The walls seem paler without Roxas to brighten them. Sora's parents and Kairi are sitting upon a maroon couch, Selphie stroking her friend's shoulder, standing in front of her, back to the door. Tidus and Wakka are nowhere to be seen.

_This may be easier than I thought. _He makes his way toward Kairi, inwardly feeling as though he were a predator meeting his prey, ready to pounce. She will discover Sora's body missing, soon, he realizes. More tears will follow. _I'll be gone. They'll know. They will know I did something, something horrible. _Kairi will want to doubt it, but she will remember his past—his dive into darkness. She will then have to come to terms with something she will not be able to comprehend. How will she guess that Roxas has returned? How will she understand any of it? _She will think me a thief, stealing away Sora. For his light._

_Let it be that way. I can't explain this all to her. Not now, not when I don't understand it myself._ No understanding of how Roxas's eyes, hair, lips mean so much to him that with one breath of his scent he cannot stop himself from hurting those around him. Selfish, but necessary. Otherwise the pains will continue, again and again. The cycle inevitably, unendingly circling round, until either his fall or theirs.

To find the answers, he must escape. He must find his way: to Twilight Town.

With that, he maneuvers in front of Selphie, whose eyes are glued to the silver haired boy. "Tidus and Wakka went to get coffee," she tells him. Riku knows the time is now, and he kneels, pulls a mourning Kairi into his arms—the limbs of a false prophet claiming redemption that will cause misery.

Only he hears the door open. Only he knows that Roxas, and their Sora, has gone.

-

"I don't even know where we are going," Roxas cries out, eyes reflecting the never ending blue sky. "But it doesn't matter!" His legs take him down, past the cement entryway to the hospital, toward the rolling hills that open that would lead them to the beach if they run long and far enough. "I'm free." He breathes in the air, pauses, glances back with a look that makes Riku's own breathing halt. "And with _you_."

Several quick strides brings Riku to the blonde, his arms wrapping around his waist. "Is that all that matters to you, then?"

A lop-sided smile sneaks up Roxas's cheek. "I know you'll bring me to the answers, Riku, and I know that we'll okay, for now at least."

"Until Sora wakes up?" Riku immediately regrets his words as tension snakes through the air and around them, tightening, strangling. He pulls Roxas closer, protecting him from unknown forces.

The blonde places his lips just before the dark keyblade wielder's. "Let's pretend he doesn't."

Their lips meet softly, and Riku realizes how much easier it is becoming to not feel guilt, not even pretending—it just isn't there anymore. He hardly notices the stab of shame in his stomach, as he slips his tongue into the other's welcoming mouth. A sea breeze picks up, and Riku feels him tremble at the chill, holds him closer.

Eventually, Roxas breaks the kiss, but gently, kissing the side of Riku's mouth slowly before stepping away. "So," he begins, stroking the silver haired boy's arm, "where are we going?"

"Twilight Town."

Roxas smiles, fully this time, melting Riku at the sight of it. The image carved into the cavern wall depicts sadness, perhaps a mirror of Riku's own inner turmoil at the time he made it. Or maybe that was how Roxas usually appeared in his life, before he became a puppet in Twilight Town. Maybe he was born as melancholy, the unlucky number in an organization of lost souls.

"I'll buy you Sea Salt Ice Cream, then." Riku can see the memories flashing from behind the blonde's eyes. He blinks them away, ready for new memories to be chained to his mind, for he has no heart or soul for them to latch to. He knows this, but how can that stop him from living? It can only stop him from being happy.

He shakes his head, ridding his mind of it all, peering only at Riku—not images of the past, or heartaches that couldn't really have come from the heart at all. "How will we get there?" he asks.

No ship to travel between worlds, no doors to lead from one place to the other. For the first time, Riku truly understands the meaning of irony as he replies: "By raft."

* * *

This chapter was a bit less suspenseful as the others, but I hope it was a job well done. I wanted to express a happier side to Riku having Roxas now. More to come. Sorry this chapter took a little longer than the others to publish.

Please review. Any feedback is appreciated.


	9. Chapter Nine

Town of Sunset and Shadow

by je suis l.m.

Chapter Nine

_Who could expect me to recount this final day with clear thoughts? A lucid mind? Forgive me my warped remembrances, but Roxas, this is all I have left of you. Be the memories twisted, horrendously recounted, they are of you. And that is all I have, but a drawing carved into stone by a child who has been tossed aside. Now, I have been brought to my destiny, and I can forget, because of your sacrifice._

-

When the sun is highest in the sky, shining down in rays of light like spotlights upon their steps indented in shifting pearl sands, the boys drag the raft from the small cavern in which it has been hidden. Ripping away the torn sail, they replace it with a new clean sheet, Roxas securing it, Riku holding the white cloth steady in the strong wind. Perfect sailing weather.

His gaze to the horizon, Riku feels no worry over how they will manage to find Twilight Town. The man from his dream, he told him to come to the city of sunset and shadow; he knew that Riku had no air ship, but he told him to come, and he has the answers to it all—he must have known that the silver haired boy had no way to cross through worlds; yet the invitation was extended nonetheless. Riku trusts that by raft he will arrive. There are no other means by which he can travel. There is nothing else to put his trust in.

Except the blonde beside him, of course. Roxas twines his fingers with the dark keyblade wielder's. A shiver passes through his spine as the Nobody graces his forehead with a simple kiss. The answers to it all—the man from his dream with no eyes. He would see into their lives; he would see into their past, he will prove to them that their existence is meaningful; and he will tell them what it means.

They push the raft to the ocean and marvel at how easily it moves, almost as though it was built to sail the sands. Once their wooden carrier touches the water, the two jump on, and with a final push they are away. Riku stares into the face of his home, the place where he should belong and hopes that at the end of this journey he will belong to home, forever.

"Forget about them" Roxas says. "You have me, Riku. You don't need that place anymore. All we need is this." He gestures to the ocean air around them, the sea salt breeze drenching their lungs. "Really, what's more worth it to you? A life of ignorance, where you have everything but it means nothing, or revelation—you learn the meaning, even if you lose something precious?"

"You've made choices like this before?"

He nods. "I wouldn't be able to think up a speech like that in the spur of the moment." Roxas's eyes seem to reflect his lifetime—the choice he made to trust DiZ and live for a moment as a real being with a heart in a town that no longer remembers him. "Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made for momentary happiness."

"Like Sora's sacrifice?"

No reply leaves Roxas's lips, and Riku wonders if the boy is feeling remorse over Sora for the first time. But, then a smile decorates the Nobody's mouth, and the regret is gone. He turns to the water as though he will dive in, flutter like a bird who can breath in the aqua beneath.

No other has gifted the silver haired boy with such beautiful company. He slips his arms around Roxas's waist, brings him to the wood floor of the rocking raft. His lips capturing his, the two exploring each other as they explore the world around them. They truly realize that without each other in this moment, they will never come to terms with their guilt, with their choices in the past—be they good or bad—or with the future that awaits them.

-

Sleep has taken Roxas in its wispy, smoke hands. As Riku trails his fingers in the water that has been changing color to match the coming night, he prays that Sora will not wake. He knows that the keyblade wielder will eventually rise from the cage of his unconsciousness and take his rightful place in his body.

_But wait, please. Just a little longer. Give me more time._

-

Whether it is a dream or he is observing reality, Riku does not know, but as he stares into the rising sun, who's white light breaks into the emerging blue sky, he sees the light engulfing them. With a glance to Roxas, they exchange thoughts—they both see the same anomaly.

"We're here," Riku mumbles, more to himself than the boy beside him, but Roxas nods in recognition. They hold their breath, and they are underwater, and they are breathing in the oxygen and they are sightless.

But they have made it past the sea floor sand and into the sky. As falling stars they reach solid ground of sunset. From their perch, they see past the buildings, the woods, the mansion hidden there. From the clock tower they have found themselves at their destination.

-

Through the streets, Riku listens to his friend tell him tales of his life in Twilight Town. Every building, every brick holds a story.

"We used to eat so much sea salt ice cream at the clock tower. After I won the sandlot tournament, we sat there, watching the sunset, holding orbs from the trophy I'd been given."

"The train station!" He runs to the glass doors. "Wow, I would skateboard up here all the time. We'd take the train to other parts of town, search for mysteries. Back then it had been all so exciting. Now," silence surrounds the blonde as he leans against the door, slides down to rest upon the rose concrete beneath him. "The answers to those mysteries were so simple, Riku."

The silver haired boy joins him on the ground. "What were they?"

"I didn't belong. The Nobodies were looking for me."

_And I played a part in that, didn't I? To get Sora back, to stop those who are like you. Do Nobodies deserve a chance to live, more so than I? _"Well, you've been found." A kiss halts any more words, any thoughts, and in those lips Roxas hides from those remembrances of yesterday.

"We've got to stop," he says, "using each other to forget."

Riku shifts, stands, looking down on the blonde. "It was your idea."

"I know."

-

Having found no signs of the dream man in the city limits, the two boys have resigned themselves to sitting on a barren street of Roxas's choosing. To their left, a small abode of curtains and ripped sofas is nestled away in a corner. For a moment, Riku sees the blonde stare at the overhang with nostalgia, but nothing is said of it, and Riku has nothing to say.

He brought them there, with so much assuredness; yet nothing has come of it. He worries he has disappointed the Nobody. He has made promises. _Can I keep them? _The man beckoned him to Twilight Town, but it _had _been a dream.

_What if that is all?_

_You know it isn't._

"Any other places we can look?" Riku asks, hoping it to be so. Roxas shrugs at the question, and the silver haired boy can tell he is holding back. "If there is any other place," he adds, trying to comfort Roxas from whatever is plaguing him, "we have to check, or this will all have been in vain."

He shuts his eyes, breathes in deep, as though considering Riku's words. The dark keyblade wielder can make no guess at whether or not he will cave in, offer his secret information, until he confesses: "There is somewhere else: the 'Haunted Mansion'."

Riku cannot help the small chuckle that escapes him. "Well, that sounds like where we should have started! The most conspicuous place..."

"Don't be upset."

Puzzled, Riku says: "I'm not."

"Yeah. I just—that place has some bad memories to it for me." But then, he stands, takes a few steps and stops, looking back. "Are you coming or not?" They grasp hands and find their way to the chasm in the city wall—to the woods.

The world darkens as they step into the cool humidity of the forest. _Night has come to Twilight Town_, Riku thinks to himself. The trees twist and writhe. The air freezes with each intake of breath. In the atmosphere, he can feel a density, a heaviness screaming difference—a juxtaposition from the calmness of the town behind him and the forebodingness of the edifice that waits before him. He feels presences, faces watching.

In the distance, a shadow is seen. Riku tenses—has it moved? Immediately, Roxas stops, as well, his stone-blue eyes to the boy beside him. And in moments, Riku wonders if this figure is the man of his dreams; he fears he will leave them; he is frightened by the intensity of his desire to find this man, to learn it all; and he lets his legs carry him away from Roxas, to the shadow—always plunging into darkness. The chains on his pants rattle as the blood pounds in his ears like rushing ocean water. His fingertips scrape against the bark of trees and flutter on the silk of leaves.

To the shadow man, but upon his arrival, he discovers nothing. Empty air.

Breathless, Roxas, having chased the silver haired boy, leans against his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Nothing." Riku taps his fist against the trunk of the tree beside him. Then, on impulse, he snaps a branch from the tree. _Let him know, _he declares silently. _I am here. Come find me._

Through the remaining inches of forest the boys roam, until they stumble upon the mansion—half knowing where they were going, half hoping they would find it. The gate surrounds the crumbling home, abandoned of all residents except ghosts. Iron bars are cold against Riku's hands, but he opens the gate, and the two make their way through the tattered courtyard.

But Roxas stops at the door. "He's not here, is he?" he asks. "The one who will give us answers."

"I'm not sure."

"He would have come to greet us if he wants us here so badly."

Riku cannot think of a response to this. He feels it, too. The dream man is not inside. "We don't have to go inside."

"I'd rather not." He turns, blocking the door with his back. "I met Namine here. My life changed here. There are no more secrets to be found in this place."

Their eyes meet, searching for the hope they are slowly losing their hold upon. "Then, let's go."

And, waiting at the gate is a figure in crimson robes. His eyes are wide with nothingness; his hands are full with wisdom. "I've been expecting you, Riku," he says with tranquility in his tone. "And you, as well, Nobody."

The blonde takes a step back, shocked by the dream man's appearance, but Riku grasps his arm, pulls him against him. "I've come, and I want the answers to the questions I asked before."

His face splits with a smile—his teeth sharp and twisted in such a way that Riku had not noticed before. "Do you really want them?"

"Yes." The boys reply simultaneously.

"Then," he speaks slowly as though tasting each word, "ask, but you may only have one question. What is most important?"

Riku screams in his mind. _What am I doing here? What of Sora? Why am I thrust into darkness, and why do I embrace it? _But as he turns to Roxas, he knows immediately what to ask, without conversation, without hesitation. "How do I know Roxas?" The blonde beside him closes his eyes slowly, his lashes fluttering against his cheekbones. When they reopen, the stone irises show resolve, as Riku has inquired the question he has held in his void of a heart, as well.

"You drew him," the dream man says simply. "You made his face in the cavern walls."

"Yes."

"You etched that face clearly, as though you knew it perfectly, each angle, each curve."

"Yes."

"And you created something from nothing. From air you created the image of one who should never have existed: a Nobody."

Confusion grips Riku. The answer to his question is laden with riddles of perplexity. "But," Roxas protests, "Nobodies are made from the husks of those who have been changed to Heartless. Not from sketches on walls."

"And in that lies the mystery." The dream man takes a step forward, and Riku does not flinch. He has seen this man's movements before; he knows what to expect. An arm protectively wrapped around Roxas's waist is the only reaction that the silver haired boy allows. "Yes, Nobodies are brought into this world through the shells of those who become Heartless; yet that is not how they are _born_. They are born from the mind of another, and only from a mind in darkness. Only this mind can reach into the ambiance of nothingness, grasp a face that has not existed, and carve this dead soul into our universe.

"Nobodies are nothing. They should not exist, unless created by darkness. They are born from the dark; they are left with nothing, no heart, no soul. Because of this, they are as empty as air without oxygen, but they are created for one thing: to be the image of the one who has created him.

"In this way, the darkness is a god, and a Nobody his Adam; yet there is no free will. There is only nothing. The role of the Nobody is to bring nothing but an image of life—two dimensional. Nobodies exist as previews to what a Somebody could possibly look like, but they are never to exist, unless the heart of a Somebody is stolen. Then the balance between the darkness and light is broken, and a mistake, an error if you will, in the design is created. Then, the sketch is given three dimensions. Then, the sketch is alive."

The dream man swoops upon them, his proximity so near that Riku can smell the acrid stench of brine, but the man ignores the dark keyblade wielder. No, his white eyes are upon Roxas. "You know it is true. You knew there was nothing for you, yet you came, for _him. _Thus is our destiny, forever."

"Our destiny?"

The smile cracks his face once more. "The life of a Nobody—our destiny. I am one with you in this. Now, you know what must be done. Release the Somebody. You have taken his time for your Creator, and it is over. It is finished."

Flashes of hot light—and Roxas has fallen to the ground. White light, and it is Sora Riku kneels to. In white light he has found his answers; in light he has lost them. In light the dream smiles and ends; and in light he is on sand.

He has returned to his destiny.

-

He wakes alone but not in fear. Destiny Islands has brought him death and rebirth. He turns and sees Sora, his leg and arm bandaged, with Kairi. Their lives mended. Sora looks at him and smiles. All is forgiven.

But Roxas is gone. There is no need for him to reappear, now that he has found the reason and means for his existence.

Roxas was born from him, and no Somebody on the islands, or in all of the worlds, knows, except for his Creator. For those few moments, upon a raft, traveling the space between worlds, he was alive, breathing the air of Twilight Town, side by side with Riku, learning of his origin—who and to who he truly belongs. He was his own person, finally aware of his identity, and nobody knew but Riku. Nobody.

-

Town of Sunset and Shadow - End

* * *

A/N: Okay, really I know this was _insane_, but it is the gist of the storyline. I feel bad for confusing everyone, most likely, but this story was weighing on me, and I am starting university so I couldn't keep lasting it out; plus, if I made this story any longer, it would drag and become rather boring.

I took some liberties with the end of this story, and returned it to how the first chapter was, a.k.a. very confusing, with the story running together like a river, no breaks, no fillers.

If you have any questions or are curious about the theory expressed in this story about Nobodies, then review and ask. I'll reply.

**Please review**. The story is over, now, so I'd like to know everyone's overall thoughts on it. Thank you.


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